New Canaan charter panel debates appointed versus elected boards
Other Committee · Meeting of March 17, 2026
New Canaan's Charter Revision Commission fielded hours of public comment on whether to keep boards appointed or make them elected. Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Dan Radman asked fellow charter member Jennifer Holm to recuse herself from that debate over her pending litigation against the Zoning Board of Appeals, which she disputed. Former Conservation Commission chair Chris Shipper urged expanding that panel from five to seven members, saying "there's no way that a group of conservation commissioners are going to have the weight or the pull or the resources" to do their charter-mandated work without funding.
Republican Town Committee Chair Melanie Hearn and Democratic Town Committee Chair Tim Climpple briefed the panel on candidate vetting and unaffiliated-voter engagement. The minutes passed 10-0-1, and the panel now turns to a dedicated March 24 session on elected Planning and Zoning seats, term limits and a "bare majority" selectmen proposal.
In the full story:
- The complete report — 847 words
Source: the Other Committee meeting of March 17, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
The Full Article
NEW CANAAN — March 17, 2026 — The Charter Revision Commission spent most of Tuesday's meeting listening to residents and town committee leaders debate whether New Canaan boards should stay appointed or move toward election, while a Planning and Zoning Commission leader asked a fellow charter commissioner to step aside from that discussion over a pending lawsuit.
Chairwoman Corbett presided over the session, which drew four public speakers and briefings from the leaders of the town's two political parties before the commission turned to its own internal business, including a request that member Jennifer Holm recuse herself from the appointed-versus-elected debate.
The Full Story
Four residents addressed the commission before it got to its own agenda. Chris Shipper, a past chairman of the Conservation Commission who has lived at 8 Ferris Hill Road for more than 25 years, urged the commission to consider expanding that panel from five to seven members and to examine whether the town's unfunded land acquisition fund ordinance could be revived. Shipper said the commission's long list of charter-assigned duties, from mapping open space to negotiating with water companies over undeveloped land, is unrealistic without staff or a budget.
Thomas Clauss, a 32-year resident of White Farm Road who chaired New Canaan's first Ethics Board, argued for keeping most boards appointed rather than elected and raised what he called a structural flaw in the ethics code he helped write: it requires the Ethics Board to report to the Board of Selectmen, even when a complaint involves a selectman. He suggested the charter commission consider an alternate reporting body, such as Town Council, and questioned why the first selectman oversees the election of the Ethics Board's own officers.
Dan Radman, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, defended his commission's position that decisions should remain appointed rather than elected, and disputed a colleague's characterization of a 69-response resident survey as broadly representative. Radman also asked that commissioner Jennifer Holm recuse herself from any charter commission discussion of appointed versus elected Planning and Zoning seats, citing what he described as her ongoing litigation against the Zoning Board of Appeals and the planning department. Holm disagreed, saying her case has been resolved at the local level and is now before the Connecticut Supreme Court.
A fourth speaker, who described himself as a former elected town official who led the town's most recent update to the Plan of Conservation and Development, told the commission that state law requires municipal projects to be checked against that plan through a formal referral process, but said the plan itself carries only advisory weight otherwise. He said the update process included extensive public hearings and rejected a suggestion, attributed to another commissioner's written comments, that it lacked checks and balances.
Republican Town Committee Chair Melanie Hearn and Democratic Town Committee Chair Tim Climpple then briefed the commission, at the chair's request, on how their organizations vet and endorse candidates for appointed boards and elected office, and on how unaffiliated voters fit into that process. Both said their committees try to steer unaffiliated residents toward service regardless of party and said the town has more demand for volunteers than available seats.
"There's more demand for qualified volunteers than supply," Radman said. — Melanie Hearn, chair, Republican Town Committee
"There's no way that a group of conservation commissioners are going to have the weight or the pull or the resources to organize that." — Chris Shipper, past chairman, Conservation Commission
"I respectfully ask that Jennifer Holm recuse herself from anything to do with the PNZ discussion about elected or appointed, due to her ongoing litigation against the ZBA and the planning department." — Dan Radman, chairman, Planning and Zoning Commission
Commissioners also revisited an unrelated recusal question involving member Angela Jameson, whose spouse serves on the Planning and Zoning Commission. Corbett said the commission had obtained a legal opinion, described in a December 28 memo to members, concluding Jameson has no financial conflict of interest and is not required to recuse herself.
Why It Matters
The commission is preparing a report to Town Council, and the appointed-versus-elected question for the Planning and Zoning Commission is now its most contested item, set for a dedicated session March 24 alongside term limits and a "bare majority" proposal for the Board of Selectmen. Commissioners said they have compiled an eight-page draft of members' written pro and con arguments that will feed directly into that report. Separately, a commissioner is expected to submit written material on a decade-old ballot change that allowed voters to cast up to six votes for multiple-seat races without reinstating a companion cap limiting any one party to four winners, which members said contributed to confusion in a recent election and will require further legal review.
Key Motions & Votes
- Vote: Approval of the March 3, 2026 meeting minutes Tally: For: 10, Against: 0, Abstain: 1, Total: 11 - Vote: Motion to adjourn the meeting Tally: Approved unanimously
Source
Town Of New Canaan: Charter Revision Commission meeting, March 17, 2026